COUNTERFEIT PARADISES (China, 2011)

Thanks to China’s spectacular economic growth, which translated into a larger, better off middle class, international tourism by Chinese has grown sharply. Ever more Chinese travel to other countries, where they spend more money. An alternative is the Windows on the World park in Shenzhen, where replicas of famous bits of foreign countries have been recreated. Here the Chinese can whet their appetite for seeing the real thing. But, Matthew Niederhauser warns, this is also a form of indoctrination, focused on consumption – a process that will prove just as empty as previous social movements in China.